Animals in Late Antique Hagiography. Transfer and Change

• Applicant: Privatdozentin Dr. Eva Elm
• Subject Area: Greek and Latin Philology ; Roman Catholic Theology
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 548806534

Inspired by a study by Peter Singer, according to which the fact that animals are capable of feeling pain justifies their claim not to inflict pain on them, animals have become a popular subject of research in cultural studies, social sciences, history, and literature in recent decades as part of human-animal studies. The new interest in animals and their interaction with humans also applies to the period of late antiquity. Researchers such as Patricia Cox Miller, Virginia Burrus, and Ingo Schaaf have made important contributions to the study of this period. However, studies dedicated to individual literary genres are still lacking, apart from Janett Spittler's work on the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles. The planned project will focus on hagiography, one of the central literary genres of late antiquity, in which animals play an important role not only in the lives of the saints living in the desert but also in those of Gallic and Italian saints. Due to the longue durée of this type of text and its widespread and lasting impact, hagiography is highly suitable as a case study for an examination of the complex relationship between late antiquity and animals.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants